INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill defiantly rejected calls to resign on Monday, saying his name “has been dragged through the gutter” amid allegations that he inappropriately touched a lawmaker and several other women.
The Republican said during a news conference that he stands “falsely and publicly accused of abhorrent behavior.” Hill said he learned about the allegations and an internal investigation stemming from the claims shortly before boarding a plane last week.
He said he has been unfairly treated and asked for a fair investigation.
“These past several days and weeks, my name and reputation have been dragged through the gutter in ways that I would have never imagined. Apparently in this climate the standard is guilty and ‘who cares if you’re innocent?'” he said from a podium outside his office. “A week ago today, I had a name. And I want my name back.”
Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb and GOP legislative leaders called on Hill to resign last week after an internal legislative memo outlining the allegations was leaked to the media. Hill said Monday that he respects the governor but wished he would have reached out to him “before rushing to judgment.”
Hill declined to take questions, but called the allegations “vicious and false.”
The memo alleges that a state lawmaker and three legislative staffers allege Hill drunkenly groped them during a March party. Democratic Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon and Gabrielle McLemore, the Indiana Senate Democrats’ communications director, came forward Friday saying they were among the victims.
Candelaria Reardon wrote a column that described Hill’s behavior as “deviant” when she encountered him in the early morning hours after the legislative session ended for the year. She said he leaned toward her, put his hand on her back, slid it down and grabbed her buttocks.
She said she told Hill to “back off,” but he approached again later in the night, put his hand on her back and said: “That skin. That back.”
McLemore said Hill cornered her at the party and asked, “Do you know who I am?” and proceeded to massage her back, while she worried what others who noticed Hill’s unwanted advances would think.
Hill, a staunch social conservative who is married, had been viewed as a rising star in the Republican Party since his election in 2016. The former Elkhart County prosecutor is also an Elvis impersonator who has relished punditry appearances on Fox News.
If Hill doesn’t resign, majority Republicans could take action to remove him.
1 comment
Attention women! If your gender keeps this nonsense going it will have an effect. I would not hire a woman right now under any circumstance. I am sure I am one of many people that feel this way. If a woman can simply make an accusation and people are expected to resign we have gone off the rails. Any woman that was groped but didn’t feel the need to take action when it happened should have ZERO credibility. Once again our politicians are screwing the citizens of this country. Now we are very lucky that it is at the state level. Holcomb has no backbone and is a Democrat in truth so this is to be expected from him.